Executive summary
The risk of corruption in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) remains high despite improvements to corporate governance in the last decade, but that risk may be reduced when SOEs are operated with the efficiency, transparency and accountability of good practice private firms. The OECD’s body of work on SOEs has documented how these firms may be particularly exposed to corruption. Chapter 1 outlines why this matters, and how good practice private firms can help. On the one hand, private firms are subject to disciplining market forces that should, in principle, provide incentive to adopt good practices in accounting, audit, control and risk management. On the other hand, private enterprises may have a longer history with compliance in cases where SOEs have traditionally been operated more akin to government entities than incorporated ones. Thus, private firms that champion good practices – notably those that adhere to the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance – can play a useful role in disseminating corruption-prevention solutions that are tried and tested across different sectors and regions.
A new programme – Compliance Without Borders – is using innovation in peer learning to deliver practical improvements to integrity in SOEs. This Handbook introduces Compliance Without Borders – a programme with the purpose of using co-operation to reduce the risk of corruption, build high-quality compliance systems and improve integrity standards in the management and operation of SOEs. Practically, the programme facilitates virtual secondments between private sector anti-corruption compliance experts and host SOEs for a period of three to six months. Chapter 2 uses insights from five pilot exchanges to describe how this peer-learning programme is helping SOEs strengthen their risk management systems, improve identification and management of individual risks and enhance the corporate culture of integrity. The pilot exchanges have helped participating SOEs to develop a new conflicts of interest policy, facilitate direct reporting from the compliance function to the supervisory board, identify new risks and develop ethics training, to name a few. The learning has been a two-way process. Private sector experts who lend their expertise affirm that they too are learning and developing professionally.
Compliance Without Borders offers a simple, no-cost way of championing business integrity. After explaining how the programme could help strengthen business integrity in Chapters 1 and 2, Chapter 3 provides SOEs and compliance experts with the essential information they need to understand how the mutual exchange takes place, how they might get involved and what to expect from their participation.
Compliance Without Borders taps into the (good)will of individuals in state-owned and private firms, who are collectively raising the bar for business integrity. The OECD and Basel Institute on Governance co-developed this collective action initiative, pursuant to a B20 recommendation to implement G20 recommendations on anti-corruption more broadly. The programme is featured under the United States’ “Global Initiative to Galvanize the Private Sector as Partners to Combat Corruption”, which leverages the important role of the private sector in the fight against corruption and level the playing field. Companies participating in the programme are providing the positive encouragement (and friendly competition) needed to inspire other companies to join in raising the bar on business integrity. The immediate outputs of the exchanges are tangible, the outcomes of the programme are diverse and the potential for more is great.